The hike is over and thankfully all forty of us are still there. We visit the abandoned bunker at Mount Bental, built during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and site of one of the bloodiest and most miraculous Israeli victories in history. Our view into Syria is sobering. We all know that just below us people are still fighting and being killed. I question the price of peace and how it will be reached in the region.
The group heads into the bunker. Eilam leads the pack with a flashlight and Asaf looks our for stragglers with a headlamp at the rear. At some point we lose the rear of the group. But no problem, we still have light at the front. A hundred meters more and the tunnel goes pitch black. Eilam has gone ahead with a few people and a half dozen of us are left alone. Fortunately, there's only one path to follow but we trip over each other as our eyes slowly adjust to the darkness. We finally reach an opening and after a second of adjustment we see a gorgeous view directly into Syria. Interesting that forty years ago the landscape was so entirely different.
On to our last, and what turned out to be most enjoyable, stop of the day: rafting on the Jordan River. I hop in a raft with 5 others and we shoot down the ramp, crashing into the water. It's a relaxing ride as we listen to a few of David's more inappropriate stories. I have one of the two oars (actually a kayak paddle) but the raft is difficult to control, especially when I'm trying to avoid smacking my boat-mates with the paddle. We bump into rocks and push straight through weeds until we reach a small beach. Knowing we were the first ones into the water we beach ourselves and go for a swim. The water's refreshing and washes away the sweat from our hike that morning.
Back in the water, shouting "Shalom" to every Israeli we see on shore, we come across a man standing waist hike in the water wearing a vest matching ours. Through his broken English, and our horrendous Hebrew, we learn that he fell into the water and his friends, not knowing how to stop their boat, carried on. We pull him aboard and carry on down the river. He spots his friends in the distance and yells out for them to stop. We paddle hard and after a couple of bends we reach them. It's not the happy reunion we expected. He splashes water at them, angry for their betrayal and we join in. We blast them with the super soaker on board and paddle off before enemy can retaliate with splashes of their own.
More stories and crashing into branches and we near the end of the trail. We look behind us and spot group number two gaining ground on us. My competitive instincts kick in and I paddle furiously, keeping our boat steady and away from branches and rocks. We cross the finish line first (none of us mention our head start) and we hop aboard the bus that will take us back to the start. We're the only ones from our group aboard and we wait half an hour for the rest of our companions to arrive, eating ice cream and pears that we'd smuggled out of the kibbutz.
We make Shabbat preparations back at the kibbutz and I put on my one wrinkled dress shirt and jeans. Kabbalat Shabbat is similar to what I know from home and I join in the singing, very off key. We have another great meal and head over to the pub.
I have my first good night's sleep since the trip began. It's an easy day, we walk through the kibbutz and take a look into Lebanon and down into the Hula Valley. It's another hot day and people are feelings the affects of the night before. I pass my water around to a half dozen people and there are drops left when it's returned to me. I refill it and drink it all when I get back to my room.
A group of us organize a five on five basketball game. I'm playing center against Eilam and with his size and talent I feel lucky with every rebound or shot I get. At 191cm I hadn't felt short in quite a few years but that game made me look small.
Shabbat ends and it's back to the bar.
Hebrew word of the day, to sleep: לישון (la-shen)
When do we get the Hebrew word for "to drink". I think it's Leshtot but maybe I'm wrong. Glad you're having a great time. Israel is such an interesting place, both geographically and socially. I need to go back to do more hiking in the Galilee.
ReplyDelete